The 2006 AIDS Epidemic Update , a report jointly prepared by the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) , released this month out the total number of HIV-infected people in the world to be anywhere between 34.1 and 47.1 m after an addition of 4.3 m new cases this year.
Notwithstanding promising developments in global efforts to check the spread of the dreaded disease, the number of HIV patients continues to grow as does the number of deaths due to AIDS, says the report. Keeping these statistics in mind, let's see what GIS has done and can do to tackle this global scourge as the world observes DEcember as AIDS awareness month. It is an undisputable fact that geographical dimensions are crucial in understanding patterns in the transmission of the disease and arrest its progress.
Developments in GIS technology have greatly enhanced our capacity to undertake spatial tasks needed for this purpose. But, surely GIS can do much more than mapping. It offers a wide range of analytical capabilities, which make it a powerful tool in the ongoing battle against AIDS.
- It is extremely quick in presenting information in 3-D.
- Its capacity to identify patterns and trends of the disease spread are unmatched.
- It has an uncanny ability to dynamically depict changing distributions over time.
- It help us analyse the relation between differnt element (different layers of information ) that influence the spread of the disease like location of highways, population density, cultural attributes, location of health centres and drug etc.
- Disease diffusion models can also be built using GIS
Several GIS projects to map, analyse and prevent the spread of the disease at various levels - be it local, state, national or international- are currently underway.
Now it is essential to work out the ways to educate and mobilise public support for effective utilisation of GIS in the fight against AIDS and come up with innovative methods and technologies to help check this menace
